Saturday, September 05, 2009

bbc.co.uk - A Indian railway station which was abandoned for 42 years because of fears that it was haunted has reopened in the eastern state of West Bengal.

Locals and railway workers say they lived in fear of a female phantom who frequented Begunkodor 260km (161 miles) from the state capital, Calcutta.

In 1967, a railway worker is said to have died days after he saw a "woman ghost" draped in a white sari.

Officials say the story was made up to avoid postings at the remote station.

They argue that it was primarily railway employees who expressed fears about the "woman ghost" at Begunkodor.

"Soon all railway employees fled Begunkodor and trains stopped stopping there. It made life very difficult for locals," said Basudeb Acharya, former chairman of the parliament's standing committee on railways.

Mr Acharya says employees "cooked up the ghost story " to avoid a posting at such a remote station.

Celebrations

Begunkodor is 43km (26 miles) from the district headquarters in Purulia, the westernmost district of West Bengal. Purulia is home to the Santhal tribe and is also a Maoist stronghold.

On Tuesday, the Ranchi-Hatia express stopped at Begunkodor, the first train to draw into the station for 42 years.

India's railway minister Mamata Banerji has dismissed all reports of an apparition.

When she announced new trains for West Bengal she wanted the Ranchi-Hatia Express to stop at Begunkodor because locals had pleaded with her to reopen the station during the election campaign in May.

"I don't believe in ghosts. It is all man-made," Mamata Banerji is reported to have told railway officials when the new trains were being scheduled.

The reopening of the station became "an event for local celebrations", according to railway commercial inspector, Dilip Kumar Ghosh.

He said people gathered in large numbers and "danced in joy" as the train arrived.

"I have never seen a train stop here since I have grown up," said Begunkodor resident Govinda Mahato.______________________

Posted December 26, 2007:Begunkodor Station and the Dancing Woman Phantom

A station in Purulia where no train has stopped in 35 years, apparently because of a phantom woman who dances on the platform or walks along the tracks, might come to life again.

Railway standing committee chairman Basudev Acharya said no passengers boarded trains from Begunkodor, nor did railway officials want to be posted at the station.

“Such an absurd thing shouldn’t be allowed to continue,” the CPM member of Parliament told South Eastern Railway general manager A.K. Jain today and urged him to resume operations at the station.

BSNL officer Pabitra Koi-barta, a resident of Begunkodor village, said word about the station being in the “grip of evil spirits” spread after a woman was run over while crossing the tracks.

“We have heard from elders about the accident. Panic had gripped the area then and people started avoiding the station. There were even reports of people being sucked in towards passing trains and villagers started taking detours to avoid going anywhere near the station,” said Koibarta, 44.

Madan Gope, 65, said a lone railway employee used to man the station when people almost stopped using it.

“The railway employee told villagers he saw a woman in a white sari dancing in the dead of the night. Weeks later, he was dead. It was presumed that he had been killed by the ghost,” said Gope, a resident of nearby Jhalda, 5km away.

The station employee who replaced the dead man apparently stopped coming to work four-five days later.

Gope had tried to take a peek at the dancing woman in white. “I had gone to the station hearing about the woman, but saw nothing,” he said.

Railway officials denied the ghost theory, saying the station became useless after the narrow gauge line was converted into broad gauge “30-35 years ago” and trains started moving fast.

A senior official promised a “feasibility study to find out whether resumption of operations would be commercially viable since the chairman” had asked for it.

Local Congress MLA Nepal Mahato confirmed the fear of “unholy spirits” at Begunkodor and also suggested a remedy. “Quacks can be put in- to service to shoo them away,” he said.

Could this photograph of a blurry figure on steps leading to St Columb's Cathedral be the best evidence yet of supernatural activity in the city?

The spectral vision was snapped by a 'Journal' reader wholly unaware he had captured the shadowy figure.

It was only when he viewed the photos on his computer that he noticed the eerie figure.

The ghoulish apparition can be seen on the steps linking the Cathedral to St Columb's Court - an area steeped in the blood and violence associated with 17th century Derry.

One local amateur ghostbuster says there is definitely something strange about the chilling snap.

"This area dates back to pre-Siege times - it's little wonder such an entity could be left to wander the ancient street of this part of town.

"The very fact that it is so close to a church and a graveyard makes it all the more spooky."____________________

History of St. Columb's Cathedral

Named after St. Columcille, the Ulster monk who established a Christian settlement in the area before being exiled from Ireland and introducing Christianity to Scotland and northern England. The monastery was the foundation on which Derry was built, the cathedral was constructed between 1628 and 1633 and was the first Protestant cathedral in Britain or Ireland (all older ones were confiscated Catholic cathedrals). The original wooden steeple burnt down after being struck by lightning, while the second (a leaden and rounded replacement) was smelted into bullets and cannonballs during the Great Siege of 1689. The same fate did not befall the cathedral itself, as it was designed to double as a fort with 6-inch- thick walls and a walkway for musketeers to shoot from the spire. The porch still holds the mortar shell that delivered the terms of surrender directly to the courtyard. The roughly hewn stone interior holds an exquisite Killybegs altar carpet, an extravagant bishop’s chair dating from 1630, and 214 hand-carved Derry-oak pews, of which no two are the same.

A small museum in the chapter house at the back of the church displays the original locks, along with keys of the four main city gates and other relics. The tombstones lying flat on the ground in the graveyard outside were leveled during the siege to protect the graves from Jacobite cannonballs. The small Mound of Martyrs, in the back left corner toward the walls, contains the 5000 dead previously buried in the cellars of the nearby houses, transplanted here during the city’s redesigning efforts.

At least, that’s the possibility under investigation by the Paranormal Activity Research Society, which spent a stormy Saturday night checking out reports of hauntings at the Roebling Museum on Second Avenue.

PARS co-founder Robert Reid said he decided to bring the group to the museum after reading online reports of mysterious occurrences at the Main Gate building, which was recently fixed up and just opened this year as a museum after being empty for decades. A neighbor reportedly heard noises and saw lights turning on and off when no one was around.

”There’ve been a lot of memories here, people who had been working here for 30 years straight,” Mr. Reid said. “For some of them, the last time that they actually walked through these gates, they never walked back out.”

Industrial accidents were not unheard of in the days of the steel mill’s operations. The mill closed in 1974, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been overseeing the ongoing cleanup of the site, which was declared a Superfund site in 1984. The museum now commemorates the workers who made steel cables that support structures like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge.

According to the paranormal investigators, construction — such as the work that has gone into the Superfund site and museum building — can cause activity among any “entities” on the grounds.

One detail that caught PARS’ interest is a report, confirmed by vice chairman of the museum board of directors and longtime village resident George Lengel, that a man hanged himself in the main gate building in the late 1930s. The suicide apparently occurred in what is now a gallery depicting photographs of the Roebling family, which founded the plant, but was originally the site of jail cells when Roebling was a company town, according to old building blueprints.

”There was a report his ghost still haunts the main building,” Mr. Reid said. “The energy could still be here from that.”

Mr. Lengel said the suicide victim was far from the only person to expire during the operation of the steel mill.

”Many people died in this plant,” he said. “It was a dangerous place to work.”

Those deaths included the husband of a cousin of his, he said, and many others reported in the former New Jersey Mirror newspaper.

But Mr. Lengel classified himself as “very much” a skeptic, “until something taps me on the shoulder.”

While he said he did one night hear people talking and could not find a source, he said it was entirely plausible it was due to the museum’s proximity to the street and could simply have been people walking by.

The PARS spent Saturday night investigating the possibility that when a person dies, energy from the body moves into the environment and retains intelligence.

”If they’re going to manifest themselves for you to try and see them,” Mr. Reid said, “they’re using energy out of the air. There’s natural energy around us all the time... So when energy’s pulled to a certain area, it’s going to take things out of the air.”

He said the group believes this could cause cold spots, which it finds with a thermal imaging camera, and electromagnetic disturbances it discovers with electromagnetic field detectors.

”When you die, something has to happen to that energy — energy can’t be destroyed — so all paranormal researchers are looking for this energy, and whether it’s burned off naturally and stays behind or is intelligent and moves around,” he said.

PARS co-founder Robert Green said Saturday he thought the Main Gate building might be a focal point for supernatural entities because it was how the plant’s workers entered and exited the mill’s sprawling, 240-acre campus.

”Every day, every shift change, 500 or 600 people went through there,” he said. “There could be a lot of energy there.”

Other areas of interest were the jail cell, another room that is the former site of a first aid area, and the cobblestone pathway leading away from the main gate.

While Mr. Reid said the group usually takes about a week to go through the hours of footage it records on the thermal camera, as well as regular cameras and audio recorders, the investigators did encounter some bizarre phenomena Saturday night.

”We can’t make a statement of whether it’s haunted or not without going through the material first,” he said, noting the possibility of false positives due to things like dust caught on film. “But there were definitely some occurrences we couldn’t explain with scientific or normal reasoning.”

Mr. Reid said those included Mr. Green feeling something touch his leg when nothing was there. Ronnie Poulin, the third co-founder, and group case manager Daria DeCicco reported hearing noises above them in the main gate building, Mr. Reid said, and visiting New Jersey 101.5 FM radio personality Casey Bartholomew, who followed along on the investigation with his costar Ray Rossi, felt a coldness on his elbow.

I received the following email in reference to a post from August 23, 2009 where several businesses in Lancaster, Ohio were experiencing paranormal activity...Lon

Re: ghosts in Westerman's tux shop........

"The shop which is now Westerman's used to be McClurg's. McClurg's sold and serviced musical instruments and sold supplies for them. Before that I believe it was a music store by a different name. I was young when I met the former owner of that place who used to be mean to everyone. After I and my younger brother interacted with him in different ways he became a nice man again. He passed away some time after and so it became Mr. McClurg's store. During the time Mr. McClurg had it, the employees from the previous store still worked there. We'd often hear this one employee yell about someone standing behind him that disappeared. My younger brother and I had gotten to know this employee from that former store and we'd gotten to know that former owner. The owner had been mean to this employee then turned to become very nice to him which unnerved him. He got into a habit of looking over the employee's shoulder to see him working on instruments. Their previous interaction was that of the employee not seeing the owner watching over him and then flying into a rage at the poor quality of work he was doing. So, then, when he turned over a new leaf the employee was still gun shy so to speak and would jump at realizing the guy was behind him. The owner passed away but according to this employee he didn't leave. It wasn't just that either. The owner was still looking over the employee's shoulder from time to time! The employee would yell before the ghost of the owner disappeared before our eyes! The ghost of the owner was looking at us and smiling like he'd done this as a practical joke on the former employee. The employee got so nervous over time that the last time it happened he said enough was enough and that he was looking for a new job. He gathered his things and walked out the door saying good riddance to the place. The owner went after him asking what he was doing. They argued but the owner couldn't talk him into staying. The man said he just couldn't take it anymore. The owner looked creeped out to be standing there in the place knowing he was the only worker there at the time. He did everything he could to get us to stay a bit longer, lol. Mom was doing errands that day and couldn't stay. Once in the car she said she didn't know what had gotten into him. My little brother told her that he knew what had gotten into him and filled her in. She tried to blow it off but then asked the owner about it when she returned to pick up her order. He told her it was all true and that he'd seen the former owner many many times in there still working on instruments. He often found the tools, especially the soldering iron, plugged in and hot. Mom trembled all over and told him she'd pray for him and have her friends pray for him. He asked her not to tell anyone as it would probably cause business to go bad. She understood and said she'd only talk to close friends and that they'd keep it quiet. My sisters who knew about this told all their friends and soon teenagers were filling the store but none were shopping or buying. The owner told each one if they weren't shopping they'd have to leave. He soon realized why they were there and chided mom for talking too much. He said that now no one would come to buy anything from him and he'd be ruined. It actually worked out well for him since people were very interested in the man's ghost. While they were there they would buy things too and business was great. In time it died down and the business was back to normal once again. So, that's the story about the ghost in Westerman's."______________________

A few local business owners have enlisted a local paranormal group to get some answers to some hair-raising events.

Tammi Jo's Café and Catering co-owner Tammi Neighbor has had several eerie events in her restaurant, 111 N. Columbus St., since opening less than a year ago.

"There's too many things going on for it to be a coincidence," she said. "One time the restaurant was full, and we heard a whistle come from the center of the building. Everyone turned and looked, but there was no one there."

Neighbor's list of spooky events include a vase moving from one location to another day to day, water faucets turning on by themselves and a crate of rags spontaneously combusting.

Neighbor researched the building's history and learned it formerly belonged to an occult group before they were driven out of town.

She contacted The Ohio Paranormal Seekers, which will make several sound and video recordings to determine if spirits roam the café.

The group will investigate four Lancaster businesses, including two places on either side of Tammi Jo's Café. They will analyze Tammi Jo's Café, Paperback Exchange and Westerman's Tuxedo Junction on Saturday. He will investigate the Tavern at the Mill Sept. 10.

"I was sitting there talking to Vicki (Westerman, co-owner) and heard someone talking upstairs. I apologized for keeping the owner from her other customer, but she said she was the only one there," he said. "I thought she was messing with me, but I went upstairs and there was no one there."

Westerman said she didn't hear the voice, but she also doesn't doubt the possibility of the building, 113 N. Columbus St., being occupied by some presence.

"It would be interesting if they did find something," she said. "But I wouldn't move. I've never felt unsafe here."

Tavern at the Mill owner Ron Hawk said the building, 431 S. Columbus St., has been known as a haunted building for many years. His employees discovered an old newspaper article detailing the death of a 19-year-old man named Luke who was killed in the elevator shaft in 1919 in the Tavern.

"I'm not the type of person to believe in ghosts or spirits, but a lot of my employees do," he said. "Nothing they find, or don't find, will surprise me."

He said employees have mentioned hearing pool being played while no one was by the table and the juke box turning on for no apparent reason.

"A lot of my employees are afraid to go down in the basement by themselves," Hawk said.

He has no plans of moving his business from the 115-year-old building, regardless of the findings by the paranormal investigators.

"I have a lot of money invested there," he said. "I'm not going to let any supposed ghosts scare me out of there."

Paperback Exchange owner Leanne McClellan said on two separate occasions she left a piece of mail on her desk before closing and each time the items were gone the next morning.

"The first time it happened I thought I was losing my mind, but the second time made me think more," McClellan said.

"I'm the only one that works here. Unless we have a ghost, I have no clue where it went."

She said it will be business as usual even if ghosts or spirits are found to be staying in the used bookstore at 109 N. Columbus St.

indiatimes.com - Call it height of ignorance or blind faith but people have been believing into incomprehensible incidents as God’s blessings. Mysterious incidents have always brought the blind faith among the citizens to the fore.

A couple of years back people thronged Ganesh Tekdi temple when news about the Lord Ganesh idol consuming milk spread like fire. Similar was the situation when a 30-feet deep well in Bajrang Nagar was said to be full of hot water recently.

Now, the news of white milklike fluid oozing out from a neem tree in Vijay Nagar slum area from Saturday morning has raised tremendous curiosity among Orange city residents.

Early on Saturday morning, resident of Vijay Nagar slum area Harshu Pardhi (25) rushed towards the neem tree near her home to find milk-like fluid oozing out from the tree. Harshu, a Goddess Sheetlamata’s devotee, told TOI that she dreamt of the fluid oozing out from the tree early in the morning and therefore rushed out to check if it was true. Surprisingly, white fluid was indeed coming out of the tree trunk, she said.

The fluid was oozing to flow down exactly where the idol of Goddess Sheetlamata is installed in the locality. The news spread like wild fire and not only slum dwellers but people from far away have been visiting and worshipping the tree. Many have been collecting the fluid as ‘prasad’.

People have been applying vermilion, turmeric to the tree and have offered coconuts, informed Raju Waghmare. Sixty-yearold Sukhchand Raote, who runs a grocery shop in the locality, said that he had never witnessed such a mysterious incident in his life.

These are Goddess Sheetlamata’s blessings, he claimed. Some residents said the neem tree liquid was bitter in taste. “Immediately after tasting the liquid, we felt as if the liquid had cleaned our mouth,” another resident Jai Kashyap said. The residents have decided to build a temple of Goddess Sheetlamata and have started collecting donations. Meanwhile, an official from social forestry department said that it was no supernatural power but definitely a mystery for them.

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Are you interested in the paranormal, cryptozoology, UFOs and conspiracies? Go to Phantoms and Monsters Wiki and become a member of this unique network. Start a page on a subject or add your input to an existing page or thread. Phantoms and Monsters updates are posted daily at Twitter. Signup today! Find me on Facebook

Friday, September 04, 2009

kdka.com - Someone spotted a large cat roaming a field in Fayette County and now a community is on edge.

At Laurel Highlands High School in North Union Township, girls' soccer and midget football practice were canceled after they learned of the sighting.

Someone called Fayette County 911 Tuesday night about the feline.

"Just over the hill here, it busted – there [were] animals – got the fence busted here and on the other hill there was … whatever this is was chasing cattle," one man explained.

Some people were speculating the cat came from an animal orphanage opened 20 years ago in the area, but the doctor says all of his cats are accounted for.

NOTE: this is the same general area where a Bigfoot (Uniontown, PA) was sighted several weeks ago. The Laural Highlands has a diverse wildlife population and still plenty of undeveloped land even though it's only an hour's drive south of Pittsburgh. A population of big cats wouldn't surprise me at all...Lon

bbc.co.uk - Each of us has at least 100 new mutations in our DNA, according to research published in the journal Current Biology.

Scientists have been trying to get an accurate estimate of the mutation rate for over 70 years.

However, only now has it been possible to get a reliable estimate, thanks to "next generation" technology for genetic sequencing.

The findings may lead to new treatments and insights into our evolution.

In 1935, one of the founders of modern genetics, JBS Haldane, studied a group of men with the blood disease haemophilia. He speculated that there would be about 150 new mutations in each of us.

Others have since looked at DNA in chimpanzees to try to produce general estimates for humans.

However, next generation sequencing technology has enabled the scientists to produce a far more direct and reliable estimate.

They looked at thousands of letters of the genetic code within the Y chromosomes of two Chinese men. They knew the men were distantly related, having shared a common ancestor who was born in 1805.

By looking at the number of differences between the two men, and the size of the human genome, they were able to come up with an estimate of between 100 and 200 new mutations per person.

Impressively, it seems that Haldane was right all along.

Unimaginable

One of the scientists, Dr Yali Xue from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, said: "The amount of data we generated would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.

"And finding this tiny number of mutations was more difficult than finding an ant's egg in an emperor's rice store."

New mutations can occasionally lead to severe diseases like cancer. It is hoped that the findings may lead to new ways to reduce mutations and provide insights into human evolution.

Joseph Nadeau, from the Case Western Reserve University in the US, who was not involved in this study said: "New mutations are the source of inherited variation, some of which can lead to disease and dysfunction, and some of which determine the nature and pace of evolutionary change.

"These are exciting times," he added.

"We are finally obtaining good reliable estimates of genetic features that are urgently needed to understand who we are genetically."

newzimbabwe.com - These are the shocking pictures of the human-like creature born from a goat in central Zimbabwe.

Defying science, the dead human-like being survived for several hours after birth on Sunday but died later as shocked villagers gathered in rural Maboleni, 40 miles out of the Midlands town of Gweru, to witness the “miracle”.

The creature, which was incinerated by superstitious villagers before it could be taken for lab tests, had what looks like a human head, face, nose, mouth, neck and shoulders but also had goat legs and a tail. It also had human-like skin and back.

Midlands Governor Jason Machaya claimed on Wednesday that the bizarre creature was a product of bestiality. He declared: “An adult human being was responsible.”

But experts say it is impossible for a human being to have sex with an animal and produce an offspring of any kind.

Inter-breeding humans with closely allied species like chimpanzees, gorillas and gibbons has been attempted with no results, experts say.

There are few known species that can interbreed and produce offspring of varying degrees of fertility, including horses and donkeys which produce mules which are infertile. Bison and cattle produce beefalos while lions and tigers produce ligers – both infertile.

The Midlands’ Provincial Veterinary Officer Dr Thomas Sibanda, while regretting that they never got the chance to conduct tests on the bizarre creature, said: “As far as I know, it is not scientifically possible for a man to impregnate a beast unless of course it’s a miracle.

“Inter-breeding is so hard that a sheep and a goat can mate but they will never produce any product out of it.”

Locals now fear that the creature was a product of witchcraft, but Dr Sibanda still wants to give science a chance. He said: “It is common that an animal can be born with the hydrocephalus condition, a condition that causes an animal to have an abnormally big head full of water. This condition can cause the normal positions of the chin, nose and ears to shift.

“We could have confirmed that the creature was a goat if we had seen it since we are experts in animals. To confirm whether it was a human being, you need medical doctors.”

NOTE: yeah, I know....but a really oddball posting once in awhile never hurt...Lon

Bill Ryan of Project Camelot in his own words in response to recent criticism regarding the new interview with Dr. Steven Greer.

"Besides possibly offending some people in high places, we have been criticized by some for the Steven Greer video. I need to say a few things about that. At this point, you will see why I'm writing this response myself.

We know some people don't like Kerry's interviewing style. That's okay, too: there are many other videos to watch - too many, in fact - and no-one is under contract to view or listen to our material.

We understand that many people were uncomfortable with how we (both) confronted Steven Greer. We appreciated that some people found the video hard to watch ...we did ourselves! But we do not apologize for our stance, and our substantive questions remain - and they are serious ones.

And Kerry herself has come under fire. Here's my response. Read this carefully.

Kerry Cassidy is one of the bravest people I have ever met. She has more integrity in her little finger than most people have in their whole being. In all the time I've known her - and all the time I've spent with her (which is considerable: despite not being a couple, we always share hotel rooms, and have traveled for thousands of miles and for months out of every year) -

- I have never, EVER, known her to lie or deceive in any way. I do not believe the thought ever enters her head. This is an extraordinarily rare and valuable quality. Name me another person, man or woman, who meets that test.

- I've never, ever, known her to deliberately hurt another person. Rather the opposite: she forgives and always seeks to understand those who I sometimes myself privately write off in my own moments of impatience and frustration.

- She has the kind of courage that any General would be proud of - and which many men lack. She is fearless and has no concerns whatsoever for her own safety or about others' opinions of her. She is ALWAYS trying to do the right thing. She and I have both made mistakes and errors of judgment - but her intentions are honorable every time.

She is loyal, and determined, and committed to the highest good, and I'm proud to work with her. She has explained her interview style, which is seamless with her personality, and rightly does not apologize for who she is. (One of our closest friends, Bob Dean - you may remember that some air-heads criticized Kerry for giving him a 'hard time' on camera - loves her to pieces and is one of our staunchest allies. Go figure.)

Between us, we make up an extremely strong team. We complement one another extraordinarily well. And we are far more than "interviewers" or "journalists". It's not just our job to ask questions and keep dutifully quiet.

We've been swimming in this material publicly, 24/7, for over three years, literally night and day. Before that, we were students and private researchers for decades, and have both had our own experiences. (See this interview of ourselves by Arjan Bos. You may like it. You'll learn quite a lot about us and what makes us tick.)

We know a great deal now, and are well-qualified to have our own strong, well-informed opinions on a range of subjects. We do not apologize for, or need to justify, the way we present our views - or the fact that we present them at all."

NOTE: I'm interested in what you have to say about the interview, Bill Ryan's comments and Dr. Greer's statements...Lon________________________________

Dr. Steven Greer presents "Contact & Disclosure: The Final Sequence"

Dr. Steven Greer presents "Contact & Disclosure: The Final Sequence" at the European Exopolitics Summit 2009. This is the presentation that triggered the interview/debate between Dr. Greer and Kerry Cassidy/Bill Ryan of projectcamelot.org the following day.

Steven M. Greer is an American physician, ufologist, and conspiracy theorist. In 1993, Greer founded the Disclosure Project, claiming evidence of extraterrestrial visits to Earth, and a wide-ranging conspiracy by governments in the United States and other nations to cover up evidence of these visits. Greer also claims that these groups suppress unspecified extraterrestrial technologies from the people of the world, including free energy.

Greer supports 'free and open' Congressional hearings on UFOs, 'extraterrestrial visitation', and other aspects of the alleged cover up conspiracy. One of the Disclosure Project's most famous presentations was at the National Press Club in 2001, where Greer and a number of individuals came forward with alleged evidence.

Greer is also the founder of the Advanced Energy Research Organization (AERO) and The Orion Project. Both seek funding for research into perpetual motion and other free energy devices.

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Are you interested in the paranormal, cryptozoology, UFOs and conspiracies? Go to Phantoms and Monsters Wiki and become a member of this unique network. Start a page on a subject or add your input to an existing page or thread. Phantoms and Monsters updates are posted daily at Twitter. Signup today! Find me on Facebook

Thursday, September 03, 2009

diariosanrafael.com.ar - A man living in the village El Nihuil reported seeing an object that he could not identify. He took pictures of it with his cell phone and believes it’s an UFO.

The man decided to protect his identity for fear of public opinion. Although reluctant to make public the episode, a friend persuaded him to publish it in a local Journal and after the promise to safeguard his identity.

It all started last Saturday, around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, near the Nautical Club, when the man went to the coast to check on the conditions for fishing.

He said that while he tries to photograph the object with his cellphone, it began to emit a kind of buzz and, as if it blew hard on the water, stirring, begins to rise. At that time, and while the object rises, he managed to take photographs of the strange silhouette.

As shown in the picture (of low resolution and size), the man had to zoom in to take a closer look. After capturing four images, the object disappeared in the sky.

NOTE: I attempted to enhance the images...too bad the quality wasn't better. Hard to tell the size of this object and there was no mention in the report. There was a later story in Diario San Rafael today and it seems an investigation is being conducted...Lon

UPDATE: after thinking it over and discussing it with others, I've come to the conclusion that were several close up shots of a car windshield with a crack in it. Notice the 'object' stays on the same plane and position but the only thing that changes is the backgrond. It's been bugging me all day...but I think that's what we have here....Lon

waltonsun.com - It’s hard to imagine “Big” Dave Carney being afraid of anything. And when he talks he only strengthens that assumption. But would you believe that he’s afraid of ghosts?

Standing behind the bar at Grayton Beach’s The Red Bar, Carney is an imposing figure. Broad shouldered and standing 6 foot 5 inches tall, he wears his hair in the queue style, a mostly shorn head except for a small braid of hair in the back.

Despite his size, Carney met his match on a farm his family owns in Virginia and North Carolina: A farm that he swears is haunted.

Carney quickly warms up to most everyone who takes the time to order a drink at The Red Bar. He jumps at the opportunity to wax on about life’s little slip-ups and misadventures. A conversational journeyman, his stories are not only interesting but, allowed to wend naturally, have a happy talent of growing exponentially in entertainment value.

Carney is 38-years-old and was born in Chattanooga, Tenn. He has both Cherokee and English heritage on both sides of his family. Carney moved to Walton County in 2005, and besides pouring drinks at The Red Bar, he practices kickboxing and jujitsu at the Destin Academy for Martial Arts.

He came to the area to work construction during a very active hurricane season which included Hurricanes Dennis and Katrina. “When the work dried up I started bartending,” said Carney.

It was not only employment that prompted the relocation.

According to Carney, when he and his wife, Kelly, were living on the farm, she saw the ghosts of eight people dressed in early American clothing. He believes these ghosts to be members of Daniel Boone’s family who may have been slaughtered by a Blackfoot Indian named Red Feather.

When Carney remodeled the house it led to the discovery of a compartment hidden behind a wall plastered with newspapers from the 1930s and ‘40s. In the ceiling of this compartment, he discovered three antique clocks all manufactured 24 years apart and set to the same time. He also found a box containing about 60 lengths of multicolored, braided human hair.

By asking around in town, Carney learned that the previous owner of the house, Cleave Farmer, went missing without a trace. After Cleave’s disappearance, the house sat on the market for more than 20 years and went up for auction at least three times, but never drew a bid.

Carney’s time at the farm was full of peculiar incidents and eerie discoveries. With Carney’s gift of gab, he captivates with the tales he weaves about strange lights in the woods, stone walls and alters, a chest hidden in a stream, an Indian burial ground and his own firsthand contact with whatever is haunting the farm.

“It was midnightish, I was taking some refuse from remodeling out of the house. I heard something rumbling and thought it was a bear,” said Carney, “so I made some noise to try and shoo it away.”

“Then I heard something come out of the brush and before I could turn around it grabbed me from behind. I could feel it breathing on my head. But when I went to defend myself there was nothing there. Just footprints leading up to me in the snow.”

Not long after that he traded the Appalachian Mountains for the white-sand beaches of South Walton.

Although he is quite comfortable here in Florida and has no immediate intentions of moving back, Carney is interested in writing a book about whatever is haunting his property.

NOTE: I'm not sure what is referred to as 'Daniel Boone's family' but his immediate family were not killed by Indians (though a son, Israel, was killed battling Shawnees). There are a lot of stories about Daniel Boone that simply aren't fact, though it is true that his exploits were the basis for the character Hawkeye in James Fennimore Cooper's 'The Last of the Mohicans'...Lon

This fall, a movie distributed by a major studio and marketed as a “dramatization” of real events is offering another explanation for decades of disappearances and suspicious deaths in and around Nome:

Abduction by space aliens.

"The Fourth Kind," a thriller, hits theaters Nov. 6. Marketing from NBC Universal says it’s based on “archival footage” of a psychologist who stumbled upon “the most disturbing evidence of alien abduction ever documented” while interviewing Alaskans.

Spooky. Except it all looks to be a “Blair Witch Project” style fake-out.

No one has heard of the psychologist, including the state licensing board and president of the state psychologists association. And while there have indeed been disappearances in Nome — mainly people traveling to the hub city from surrounding Inupiat and Siberian Yupik villages — blaming a real-life tragedy on alien abduction is not sitting well with the non-profit that pushed the cases into the open.

“The movie looks ridiculous,” said Kawerak Inc. Vice President Melanie Edwards, who watched the trailer online Monday. “It’s insensitive to family members of people who have gone missing in Nome over the years.”

Universal Pictures is distributing the film in the United States. The star, Milla Jovovich, is a veteran of three “Resident Evil” movies about diabolical corporations and zombies. In the trailer, she introduces herself as an actress and tells the audience that “every scene in this movie is supported by archived footage.”

But it’s all fake, right? Did the film-makers ever go to Nome? What about the idea that all this trivializes a string of tragic Alaska deaths?

The studio has no comment, an NBC Universal spokesman said in an e-mail Tuesday.

Despite an FBI conclusion in 2006 that no serial killer was to blame, emotions over the missing and dead are still raw in the region.

Dallas Massie is a retired state trooper who has been filling in as Nome police chief since early this year. Soon after he arrived, a relative of a St. Lawrence Island man who went missing in October 2004 called. He had heard there was someone new at the police department and hoped to see a re-energized investigation.

The 2004 case is Nome’s most recent major missing-persons case, Massie said. Police, he said, are still looking for leads. Within reason.

“I have yet to hear anybody with the theory that aliens are taking folks out of the region,” Massie said.

VILLAGE DEATHS

After years of rumors that Nome had become a dangerous place for travelers from the villages, local officials in 2005 released a list of about 20 disappearances and deaths in the city. The cases dated back to the 1960s. At the time, a Nome police officer was on trial for the murder of a young village woman, and some residents mistrusted city police.

The FBI stepped in, reviewing two dozen cases, eventually determining that excessive alcohol consumption and the winter climate were a common link in many of the cases. Unlike other commercial hubs in rural Alaska, Nome is a “wet” city, with bars and liquor stores.

Some of dead were killed by exposure or from falling off a jetty into the frigid Snake River, authorities said at the time.

Delbert Pungowiyi of Savoonga still believes that foul play claimed his uncle, who flew to Nome in 1998 to buy a snowmachine and never came home.

Despite the FBI’s conclusion, Pungowiyi suspects racially motivated, serial murders are to blame in at least some of the deaths.

As for the new movie?

“Oh my god, that is ridiculous,” he said.

To be fair, “The Fourth Kind” seems to be telling a different story altogether. Movie trailers can be deceiving, but the victims shown in the short clip don’t appear to be visiting villagers.

The movie’s title is a reference to a measurement system used to describe varying degrees of contacts with aliens. Think “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” A UFO sighting would be the first kind of contact. The fourth kind is abduction.

According to promotional materials from Universal, the film is framed around a psychologist named Abigail Tyler who interviewed traumatized patients in Nome.

But state licensing examiner Jan Mays says she can’t find records of an Abigail Tyler ever being licensed in any profession in Alaska.

No one by that name lived in Nome in recent years, according to a search of public record databases.

Still, there are shreds of “evidence.”

Try Googling “Abigail Tyler” and “Alaska.” You’ll get a link to a convincingly boring Web site called the “Alaska Psychiatry Journal” — complete with a biography of a psychologist by that name who researched sleep behavior in Nome. Except the site is suspiciously vacant, mostly a collection of articles on sleep studies with no home page or contact information.

Another site, www.alaskanewsarchive.com, features a story from the Nome Nugget about Tyler moving to Nome for research. The problem? The story is credited to Nugget editor and publisher Nancy McGuire, who says it's baloney and she never wrote it.

Both the news site and the medical journal site were created just last month, according to domain-name research sites.

Ron Adler is CEO and director of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute. Denise Dillard is president of the Alaska Psychological Association. They said this week they’ve never heard of the Alaska Psychiatry Journal, or of Abigail Tyler.

"Finding a chemical substance that stops the shortage of Telomeres would have enormous applications in controlling heart disease, Alzheimer's, Osteoporosis, AIDS, and Macular degeneration to name just a few."

Sierra Sciences, LLC is a company devoted to finding ways to extend our healthspans and lifespans beyond the theoretical maximum of 125 years.

Scientific research has shown that this theoretical maximum is limited because of the length of our telomeres which shorten as we get older. Our reproductive cells don’t experience this shortening, and thus don’t age, because they contain an enzyme called telomerase that re-lengthens the telomeres as they shorten. Sierra Sciences is searching for pharmaceuticals that will induce the production of telomerase in all our cells.

On November 6th, 2007 Sierra Sciences found its first telomerase inducing chemical; called C0057684. This chemical is the first ever discovered that activates the telomerase gene without killing the cells. Efforts are presently underway to learn everything possible about C0057684. But, in addition, C0057684 has provided Sierra Sciences with the first positive control ever for detection of telomerase gene activity in normal human cells. This has served as a very powerful tool for the development of robust high throughput screening assays for finding additional telomerase inducing chemicals. As such, in the last year Sierra Sciences has discovered an additional 62 chemicals that activate the telomerase gene. This now enables the scientists at Sierra Sciences to design better chemicals with increased potency and specificity. Additional screening for even more chemicals is also underway.

Recently a reader sent me his concerns about the ongoing mutilations of cats that are found all over North America. I am not sure if this phenomenon is world wide as I have only read reports concerning my area of the world.

I know that cats are often targets of malicious humans and slaughtered for many reasons ranging from fun to using them as a meat source and eating them. I remembered when I was a child a demented young man in my town was found to have a entire cat torture camp set up in the woods. He would catch the cats in the area and take them to this camp he built deep in the dense woods and torture the poor animals to death. When his camp was found the local police discovered hundreds of dead animals hanging from dozens of trees in this twisted bizarre camp.

Cats are eaten in many parts of the world the same as we eat chickens or pigs. I am aware that the world does not hold the same view on cats as citizens do in western cultures.

The thing about these cat mutilations that have been going on for many years now in North America is how they are done. Cats have been found cut exactly in half across the mid section of their bodies. The cats are then left as half corpses often with the missing half of the cat nowhere to be found. Some times both parts of the cat can be found but most common only one half of the cat can be located. The location of the found body half is usually clean of blood, which is odd considering the animals are cut perfectly in half which has to be a messy business.

The strangest thing about the cat mutilations is the neat skill of the incision that cuts the cats in half. It is not torn or ripped or shredded. The method of cutting the cats in half is clean and done with a surgeons skill. This has been going on for years with many pet owners finding the gruesome remains of half of their cat found often in their own yards.

I find these entire half cat mutilations extremely odd. First thing that strikes me, as being strange, is that this has been going on for many years. Secondly of course is the nature of the mutilation. Why would anyone or group of people want to cut a cat perfectly in half? The more I think about this situation the more questions I come up with. Why would anyone take the time to make a perfect incision and take the effort and time to either remove or clean up most of the blood and mess that certainly is involved with cutting an animal in half?

I realize that cow mutilations have been going on and investigated for a very long time. I also realize that the cow mutilations have similarities to what is happening with the half cats. They both seem to be useless acts with the dead animals corpse left unlike the kills of animals taken down by predators for food. Animals devour more of the kill when they take down another animal for food. They also leave a different type of kill zone area that is far from neat and blood free. The clean neat cuts involved in both the cow and cat mutilations seems to go hand and hand as well as the neatness of the area where the corpses are found. The biggest connection for me is the fact that all of the odd clean kill mutilations of both the cows and cats seem senseless without reason or meaning.

I have thought about this and talked about this to everyone in my path since having this ongoing situation brought to my attention. What is going on here? Why is this happening to these animals? What on earth can be the reason to cut a cat in half leaving it obviously so it can be found?

So many things run through your mind that trying to sort out one scenario seems to be impossible over others. What could be thee reason for these horrid mutilations?

I doubt it is one person as the half cats are found all over North America and have been for at least 15 or 20 years. Could these hideous actions belong to a group or cult? Could this be the work of some type of initiation to a strange club or gang or cult? Could be the killing of innocent animals be some kind of badge of honor or request for entry to a cult or gang to prove some kind of twisted act of violence by way of attacking kitty cats and kittens?

It was suggested to me that this could be some sort of need by private companies or secret projects to provide them with organic material for biological programs they are working on. I have my doubts about that as wouldn’t it be far easier to simply catch and keep the cats or empty the over crowded animal shelters as a source for live animals. Also I would think they would keep the animals and not leave half to be found by the poor pet owners.

It is clear that those doing this want animals that are living and actively part of the communities around them. The cattle are also part of a community that are being attacked and mutilated. I cannot understand why this is the case all I can do is recognize the fact that it IS the case with both mutilation scenarios.

Can the half cat mutilation be some sort of step in some kind of large underground game being played out in secret by its players? Could this be some sorted thrill found in the deviant side of the erotic pleasure spectrum only a few partake in? I have had all of these things suggested but can not figure out if any of these ideas are correct or even close to the base of why the cats are being slaughtered without reason- and left cut in half.

Of course more then one person has brought UFO and alien involvement to my attention as those who are mutilating and leaving the half cats. I would question the reasons they would leave the cat half’s to be found yet realize that we understand very little about visiting beings or why they abduct humans so must leave this as a open possibility with the cat half mutilations.

My entire opinion with this subject is one of confusion and questions. I know that this is going on. I know it has been going on for a very long time and I know there are countless explanations concerning who, what and why it is happening.

Interestingly the person who brought this subject to my attention wanted to remain anonymous. This is not unusual in fact most people who tell me their stories wish to protect their identity from the public due to the negative way we treat those who talk about subjects of the unknown. This request for privacy was a bit different. It seems this person tried to bring the subject of half cats to the attention of the people by way of the Internet. Each time the material he wanted brought to light was dismissed, rejected and even at times removed. Being exhausted by attempts to make the public aware and to be careful with their own beloved pets this person came to a dead end as where to go to make us all aware of this half cat problem.

After searching the subject of the half cat mutilations and being a pet owner and animal lover I decided to see if I could at least bring this odd situation to the minds of those who read my articles.

I have no answers to this mystery of cats being murdered, carefully sliced in half and left to be found as half cat corpses. The entire situation is sad sick and extremely strange. I wonder how many other people are finding this happening in their area unaware it is an ongoing long-term problem spread over an entire continent?

I will have to chalk this terrible half cat mutilation problem up to another subject of the unknown for now. I hope this can be figured out and stopped. It is an ugly situation that is needless and without reason. The only thing I can suggest at this point concerning this problem is for us all to be aware of our surroundings. There are so many unknowns out there we all need to be in tune with our natural habitants and aware when they change or are invaded. The most basic natural ability to survive is to understand and know your surroundings. It also seems to be one of the natural skills we seem to be quickly giving over to technology and neglect. Take the cell phone away from your ear and learn the normal sounds of your daily surroundings. Stop texting and look around your surroundings and learn when they change or seem uncomfortable. Step back to your natural abilities to survive and regain these skills before you lose them completely. It may one day be the difference of surviving or being oblivious to something deadly you could have easily avoided if you had been paying attention.

As far as my pets- I am going to pay closer attention to what they are doing and where they go. I like my cats whole and alive.

For now I think I will leave this subject on the shelf with the thousands of others we consider the unknown!

Are you interested in the paranormal, cryptozoology, UFOs and conspiracies? Go to Phantoms and Monsters Wiki and become a member of this unique network. Start a page on a subject or add your input to an existing page or thread. Phantoms and Monsters updates are posted daily at Twitter. Signup today! Find me on Facebook

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

zanesvilletimesrecorder.com - The Twin City Opera House, standing on the McConnelsville Square since 1890, has been the subject of stories, legends and local lore about being haunted.

And a paranormal group may have found proof to back it all up.

"A Web site said that it was haunted, and we decided that we would go and investigate to see if it really was haunted," said Eric Glosser, director of Central Ohio Ghost Squad. "The fascination of investigating a theater made us think this would be an interesting subject for an investigation."

Many Opera House employees and visitors reportedly have seen a ghostly white figure of a man in a white suit in the theater. It has been noted that long ago, a former manager of the Opera House always wore a white suit.

That manager's name was Everett Miller, and many people assumed that Everett liked the Opera House so much that he just couldn't leave it, even after death.

"We have captured disembodied voices (Electronic Voice Phenomena) over 200 times on digital voice recorders. When asking for a name in the basement of the theater, a voice answered Everett," said Glosser.

In the 1960s, the Opera House had lots of frightening paranormal activity reported. A janitor ran out of the Opera House, severely frightened, quit his job and refused to enter the building again. Objects were moved, ghosts appeared in the main aisle, the main drapes of the stage would close over the movie screen in the middle of a movie, rattling noises were common and toilets would flush themselves constantly.

The owner of the Opera House at the time asked a Catholic priest to do a blessing. Afterward, paranormal activity in the building greatly decreased but never completely went away.

On two different investigations, in the catwalk area over the stage, COGS investigators captured a little girl's voice on recorders. The voice said that she was "Elizabeth" and that she was 10 years old.

Over the years, as far back as the 1960s, many visitors to the Opera House, as well as employees, have told stories of seeing the ghostly figure of a young girl hovering over the stage.

"We have also captured old-time jingles, sung by women, like back in the '50s or '60s, in the ballroom. We have also captured growling on our voice recorders, but could not be heard with our own ears, in the basement area. We have had multiple sessions such as these on different investigations," said Glosser.

"Many people have observed the 'black shadow person' in the basement including two of our investigators. This summer we captured the black shadow person on our DVR system on two different cameras. We have had a piece of our equipment move by itself across the floor, which was witnessed by a book publisher from Michigan and four investigators," Glosser said.

He said the group was so fascinated with the Opera House that they worked it out with manager Adam Shriver to allow paranormal tours to be given.

"We have had 10 groups in from Michigan, Kentucky, Virginia and others from all over Ohio. We investigate it a few times each year ourselves," Glosser said.

When asked if he truly believes the Twin City Opera House to be haunted, Glosser replied, "It is definitely haunted, for all of the facts I stated above."

Not everyone sees ghosts in the Opera House, however.

"Thankfully, I have never experienced seeing a ghost in the Opera House. I don't want to see one either," Shriver said. "I am often here, late at night, closing the place up. I don't want to see any ghosts."

Yet, despite his own lack of seeing anything paranormal in the Opera House, Shriver gladly welcomes various paranormal investigation groups.

Today, in addition to movies, the Ohio Valley Opry, a bluegrass, country, and gospel music show, is held at the Opera House on the third Saturday evening of each month. Live performances also feature many bluegrass groups, which are a very popular attraction at the Opera House.

"If there are ghosts in the Opera House, hopefully they like bluegrass and country music," said Shriver.________________________

History of the Twin City Opera House

The Twin City Opera House was designed by H. C. Lindsay, an architect from Zanesville, Ohio. The building was to be three stories high, and cost about $16,000. The Town Hall would have a tower that would rise 108 feet above the sidewalks of McConnelsville. The third floor would feature a grand ballroom running the complete 63 foot width of the building.

Ground was broken for the project on Monday, October 20, 1889.

Some of H.C. Lindsay’s design principles were considered quite revolutionary. The Opera House’s ground floor auditorium was uncommon in the late 1800s, and it is one of the last remaining theaters of its period with that feature. The stage floor is “raked” or sloped by 3°, to allow the audience’s front rows to see the performers’ feet. The auditorium’s central “echo dome” contributes to the theater’s nearly perfect acoustics. Lines spoken from the rear of the stage can be heard perfectly throughout the room.

The second floor would house the offices for the town government.

The formal opening was held Saturday, May 28, 1892. The opening was to be a grand affair. The program for the evening was the Arion Opera Company’s performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado.” The cast, crew and orchestra numbered nearly one-hundred. All of the eight-hundred seats that were then available in the auditorium were sold. Railway excursions had been arranged from neighboring towns to bring the cultured and the curious.

Over the years, the Opera House has accommodated an endless variety of performers and celebrities. Fire and brimstone evangelist Reverend Billy Sunday, William Jennings Bryan, and Senator Albert Beveridge spoke here. High School commencements and local minstrel shows were staged here. But, most spectacular were the traveling shows. Often arriving by train, the traveling shows brought lavish productions to McConnelsville.

In 1913 the theater was outfitted with a permanent system for showing silent films. A projection booth was partitioned off in the back of the balcony or “gallery” as it was known then, and a screen was added to the stage. The best seats in the house were those in the “Parquet Circle,” which are those in the front rows of the center section on the ground floor. These premium seats could cost as much as 20 cents, while those in the “peanut gallery” were a nickel.

The first sound pictures came to the Opera House in 1930, using the RCA photophone system. This cumbersome system involved synchronizing 78 RPM records with the film. The true “talkies” did not arrive in McConnelsville until 1936. The only time in its history that the Opera House briefly closed its doors to the public, was for the installation of the sound projectors and the renovation of the auditorium. It was at that time the old projection booth was removed from the balcony, and the present booth was created above the second floor mezzanine, and behind the balcony. The theater continues to screen recently released films, as it has done nearly every weekend since 1936.

Perhaps nothing in the theater is more interesting, or mysterious, than its tunnels. For generations, the story has been told that the tunnels were once used to conceal the movements of escaped slaves, who were fleeing the south. They were said to have linked the building that once stood on the Opera House foundation to other locations in the village, and ultimately to the banks of the Muskingum River.

reuters.com - Japan's next prime minister might be nicknamed "the alien," but it's his wife who claims to have had a close encounter with another world.

"While my body was asleep, I think my soul rode on a triangular-shaped UFO and went to Venus," Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of premier-in-waiting Yukio Hatoyama, wrote in a book published last year.

"It was a very beautiful place and it was really green."

Yukio Hatoyama is due to be voted in as premier on September 16 following his party's crushing election victory over the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday.

Miyuki, 66, described the extraterrestrial experience, which she said took place some 20 years ago, in a book entitled "Very Strange Things I've Encountered."

When she awoke, Japan's next first lady wrote, she told her now ex-husband that she had just been to Venus. He advised her that it was probably just a dream.

"My current husband has a different way of thinking," she wrote. "He would surely say 'Oh, that's great'."

Yukio Hatoyama, 62, the rich grandson of a former prime minister, was once nicknamed "the alien" for his prominent eyes.

Miyuki, also known for her culinary skills, spent six years acting in the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theater group. She met the U.S.-educated Yukio while living in America.NOTE:...and the next premier of Japan is called 'The Alien'? I see 'reptilian takes over Japanese government' conspiracy theories already...Lon

An otter charity has said an image of a rare albino otter has been captured by an amateur wildlife photographer. Karen Jack said the sight of the white animal eating a fish on rocks in Moray was "surreal".

Grace Yoxon, of the Skye-based International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF) said the otter was "extremely rare".

Ms Jack had to wait for the animal to reappear from the sea after catching a quick glimpse of it earlier.

She said: "I have been into photography for about three years as a hobby and love photographing wildlife, landscapes and my two cats.

"But it was just an amazing and surreal view of the albino otter, and for it to sit there and eat while we watched on was mind blowing."

Mrs Yoxon added: "It is extremely rare to see albino animals in the wild and to be able to get such wonderful photos is exceptional."

He said he came across the animal because a former student of his didn't know what it was either and sought advice.

"It got into his cousin's barn and they thought maybe it was a rodent tearing things up, and they had no idea since they’ve never seen it," said Ayer. "He got out some poison, and this is what they got the very next day."

Ayer said he plans to preserve the animal with taxidermy. He also said he hopes a local museum will take it for display so everyone can marvel at the strange animal.

"It’s definitely something I don’t want to throw away,” said Ayer. “I think it will be an interesting mount and a tremendous conversation piece."

The chupacabras myth began not long ago in the 1990s when eyewitnesses claimed to have seen it in Puerto Rico. Farmers there said sheep were found with puncture wounds and were drained of blood. A total of 150 farm animals were reportedly killed by the beast. Since then, sightings have been reported from Chile to Maine.

The mythical beast also found its way into popular culture and television. CNN's Ed Lavandera called the chupacabras the "bigfoot of Latino culture." The animal gets its name from Spanish, chupacabras literally means "goat sucker."

Finds like the one in Blanco have appeared on the History Channel's "Monster Quest," they were subsequently determined to be dogs or coyotes.

NOTE: looks like another mangy coyote. Honestly, I saw one that looked similar roaming a suburb of Baltimore last summer...Lon

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Are you interested in the paranormal, cryptozoology, UFOs and conspiracies? Go to Phantoms and Monsters Wiki and become a member of this unique network. Start a page on a subject or add your input to an existing page or thread. Phantoms and Monsters updates are posted daily at Twitter. Signup today! Find me on Facebook

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

I received the following email today (original...typos removed). Full name and other identification held back by request:

"I was referred to you by a friend. Can you advise or direct me to someone who can explain what I witnessed?

On August 29, 2009, I was fishing from a boat with my son on Raystown Lake, Pa. It was around 6:45 pm and we were making our way back to the landing. We were near the Snydertown portion of the lake where there is a point of land.

As we were heading south, I looked toward the west shore after my son started to point at something. I really have NO idea what this thing was but it looked like a large, thick black snake with a huge head that bobbed in and out of the water. I moved a little bit closer but my son was getting scared, so I cut the motor and looked through my binoculars. The body was moving in coils or humps up and down in the water. The creature had no fins like a fish and the head was diamond shaped. The weirdest feature was that the eyes (which were dark, somewhat small and slanted) were not set on the side of the head...but placed forward. I got an excellent look through the binoculars (I'd say it was about 50 yards from us) when it raised up, it's head moved side to side. It made no sound. I'd say it was at least 20 feet long.

I have lived in Altoona, Pa for only a few years and this is only the second time I have fished this lake. I'm from Wisconsin and have fished many large lakes and rivers but I have never seen anything this big.

We watched for about 2-3 minutes until it slipped under the surface. My son's description was very similar to mine but he said he noticed lighter colored 'whiskers' or rays on the chin and face while looking through the binoculars. I had tried to take a photo with my cell phone but it just blended in with the water and was not discernible.

My son found an image on the internet that closely resembled what we witnessed (attached). This is nuts! My friends think we saw a large fish or mammal, but there is no way it's either. Please give me some guidance or resources to help identify this. I am skeptical of monsters, ghosts, ufo's, etc. and don't buy into much of what people describe on TV. But, now that I have seen something that I can't explain....let's say I'm confused and frustrated." Thanks...Bill

NOTE: I used to fish this very lake years ago (excellent striped bass fishing!). I knew that there were some reports of a 'monster' sighted there a while back but have not heard anything lately. Anyway, Raystown Lake is a very deep water man-made lake located in Huntingdon County, Pa., east of Altoona, Pa. and south of State College, Pa. I emailed back to the witness 'Bill'...he seems to be very sincere about this sighting. He stated that he reported it to another paranormal site but didn't get a response...Lon

UPDATE: I had a few questions for 'Bill' so I sent him an email asking him to attach the photos he took with his cellphone. I wanted to see for myself what he meant by 'but it just blended in with the water and was not discernible'. He forwarded 2 photos which I examined. Since he and his son were on the same level as the creature there was a dark background of the trees as well as some glare coming off the water. I tried to enhance the photos, but there was just nothing with any definition though I could make out some disturbance on the surface of the water. There wasn't much more information that he could offer...but I certainly believe he and his son witnessed something unusual...Lon

I found a video and a few images from 2006. This creature is referred to as 'Raystown Ray'. Honestly, I never gave these sightings much consideration but may look into this further now that a supposed witness has come forward to me.

SIGHTINGMay 14, 2006 (John)While night fishing on the lake May 14, 2006 at around 2:00 am,I noticed something large and dark slowly appear in the waterapproximately 40 yards away. It was very slowly moving throughthe water. I asked my friend if he could determine what it was.The visible portion was approximately 8 - 12 feet in length. Aftershining a Surefire flashlight at it, it submerged. There were nonoticeable features such as a head or humps.

SIGHTINGJune 20, 2006 (Walter G.) I Was enjoying a morning of fishing on20 June 2006 right straight across from 7 points marina. The sunwas starting to make the morning come to life and the fish werestarting to jump. It was about 6am and I seen what I thought was afish, maybe a musky, come out of the water and grab a stick. Thestick was about 3 or 4 feet long, and the "fish" was out of the wateras far as the stick was long, not showing the tail end. When I camehome I told my wife what I had seen and said that it looked like alarge leg coming out of the water and garbing the stick. I joked andsaid that I would have liked to seen the rest of it. Today is 8 July2006 and my son told my about Ray and I look up the web site,which I never heard of till today. Now I think that maybe I didn'tneed to see the rest, but could it have been? Sighting June 16,2006 (Lee, Lea & Family) On the last day of our vacation atRaystown Lake, June 16th , we woke up early in the morning to seewhat we believe is Raystown Ray. The figure was moving about 100yards behind our boat while we were tied off at Panther Cove. Itslowly made it's way across the cove behind Marty's Island anddisappeared into a small inlet. What a great way to end a great vacation!

SIGHTINGWhen: July of 1994. John R. Pendel Pittsburgh, PAWhere: 20 minute cruise from the camp grounds area at RaystownLake. (only been to the lake once -not sure if there's more than 1campground) Sighting It was approximately 9AM in the morningand a friend of mine invited me and my wife as well as his in-lawsfor a quick morning ride on the calm lake. It was a nice warmmorning cruising around 20 knots. Me and my wife were on thestern of the boat, his wife and her parents were on the bow.While my friend was navigating the boat, he turned around andwere having an idle chat drinking coffee and about 20-25 minutesinto our ride the three of us glanced off the port side of the boatand all at the same time seen ripples in the water, a long darksomewhat shiny black object that surfaced to the top of the water,then it seemed to spin and turn over and then submersed anddisappeared. He immediately shut down the boat in amazement,the 3 of us asked each other, "did you see that?" His wife and herparents were asking what was a matter and we were speechless.The size of the object was at least 10 to 12 feet long putting intoperspective we were riding on a 19 foot open bow boat.The object was approximately 40 to 50 feet away. Never-the-less wefinished our cruise and reported our findings to the rest of thegroup we were camping with and obviously no one believed us. Tothis day we still talk about what we saw and we still get harassedabout the "fish story". A friend of mine sent me this link today thusthe reason for just reporting it now. Now we have proof to ourdoubting Thomas friends that others have seen what we seen thatday. John R. Pendel Pittsburgh, PA

SIGHTINGAugust 3 2008 Mike SieberI heard about this Raystown Ray a few years ago and thought itwas just a hoax to get more people to the lake. But after SundayAugust 3rd I'm not so sure that he doesn't exist. It was 7:15 PMand we just loaded the jet skis and started to dry them off. Mygirlfriend jokingly said "Look, Its Raystown Ray"! I looked to seewhat she was talking about and saw a neck and a headsticking about 3 to 4 feet out of the water and it was striding towarda boat that was coming into the no wake zone at the 7 Points.We watched it for about 3 minutes. We saw a wake in the waterfrom its neck and about 15 to 20 feet behind that wake wasanother wake, but we couldnt see what was causing that wake.It disappeared the closer it got to the boat. My mom, dad,girlfriend and I all saw this thing. If it wasn't Raystown Ray,I would like to know what it was!

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